Can mammographic assessments lead to consider density as a risk factor for breast cancer?

International audience; Admitting that mammographic breast density is an important independent risk factor for breast cancer in the general population, has a crucial economical health care impact, since it might lead to increasing screening frequency or reinforcing additional modalities. Thus, the impact of density as a risk factor has to be carefully investigated and might be debated. Some authors suggested that high density would be either a weak factor or confused with a masking effect. Others concluded that most of the studies have methodological biases in basic physics to quantify percentage of breast density, as well as in mammo- graphic acquisition parameters. The purpose of this review is to evaluate mammographic procedures and density assessments in published studies regarding density as a breast cancer risk. No standardiza- tion was found in breast density assessments and compared density categories. High density definitions varied widely from 25 to 75% of dense tissues on mammograms. Some studies showed an insufficient follow-up to reveal masking effect related to mammographic false negatives. Evaluating breast density impact needs thorough studies with consensual mammographic procedures, methods of density mea- surement, breast density classification as well as a standardized definition of high breast density. Digital mammography, more effective in dense breasts, should help to re-evaluate the issue of density as a risk factor for breast cancer.